BNB price eyes $1000 ahead of Fermi hard fork on BSC mainnet

Binance and BNB Chain ecosystem’s native cryptocurrency has continued its upward trajectory in the past 24 hours, gaining to above $900 as the crypto bounce in the early days of 2026 picks up momentum.

With Bitcoin and Ethereum also up, it appears the psychologically significant $1,000 mark could be attractive to bulls.

BNB price hovered near $905 at the time of writing, having posted intraday gains between $885 and $907.

The token’s price may benefit from broader market conditions as well as strong ecosystem fundamentals.

Fermi is a major network upgrade coming in the next few days.

Fermi hard fork targets faster blocks

An upcoming network upgrade could provide near-term support for BNB price action, with the Fermi hard fork scheduled to go live on the BNB Smart Chain mainnet on January 14, 2026.

According to the latest details, the Fermi upgrade marks one of the most significant technical changes to the network in recent years.

A key feature of the hard fork is a reduction in block times to 450 milliseconds from 750 milliseconds, a shift aimed at improving transaction throughput and confirmation speeds.

The shorter block times are expected to enhance overall network performance, with potential benefits for decentralized finance activity, including faster and more efficient trading on BNB Smart Chain–based protocols.

“This upgrade brings faster confirmations across the network. Validators and builders should complete the required upgrades before activation,” the BNB Chain Developers wrote on X.

Additional enhancements will include optimised execution efficiency and a refined consensus mechanism.

BNB Chain is also eyeing a lightweight indexing system to lower node resource requirements.

The hard fork is part of the network improvements that drove transaction volume and user interaction for the blockchain network in 2025.

As a catalyst for increased adoption, mainnet activation could tie in with milestones in the 2026 roadmap.